Angolan police say 22 killed in clashes with religious sect

LUANDA, April 23 (Reuters) - Nine Angolan policemen and 13
members of a millenarian Christian sect have been killed in
clashes in the last week in the central Huambo province, police
said, in violence local officials say is being stoked by the
main opposition UNITA party.

UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola) denies any role in the violence in Huambo, a party
stronghold, and has accused the police of killing "hundreds" of
people in revenge attacks since the death of the nine officers.

Reuters could not independently confirm the deaths cited by
UNITA.

Angolan police said its officers were shot dead during raids
conducted last week aimed at capturing Jose Kalupeteka, leader
of the sect "The Light of the World". He was later arrested.

Angola's government has branded the Light of the World,
which predicts the world will end on Dec. 31 and encourages its
members to live in seclusion, an illegal organisation.

The sect, which has more than 3,000 members, is a dissident
branch of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and was formed by
Kalupeteka more than a decade ago, according to state media.

"The 13 dead (sect members) are snipers belonging to
Kalupeteka who were countering and disrupting our operations,"
police spokesman Paulo Gaspar Almeida told reporters on
Wednesday in Huambo, Angola's second largest city.

Almeida did not provide the exact dates of the raids.

There were further clashes between the sect and police on
Wednesday south of the city, a separate police statement said.

UNITA accuses the police of orchestrating the violence in
order to suppress planned nationwide demonstrations this month
against Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos' 36-year rule.

Dos Santos has blamed the Huambo clashes on the Light of the
World but the Huambo provincial government, led by the
president's ruling MPLA party, has said UNITA is behind the
unrest.

"The sect, taking advantage of the faith of (Kalupeteka's)
followers, has put in motion a political plan well-orchestrated
and directed, with many of the traits of UNITA," said a local
government statement published by state media on Thursday.

Angola, Africa's second largest crude exporter and a key oil
supplier to China, still suffers from sporadic violence as it
recovers from a 27-year civil war, which ended in 2002.
(Writing by Joe Brock; Editing by Gareth Jones)